Offshore Wind Strategy Announced by Department of Energy

A National Offshore Wind Strategy: Creating an Offshore Wind Energy Industry in the United States was released by DOE.  The Department of Interior also participated in the document’s development.

The press release notes that the document is “the first-ever interagency plan on offshore wind energy and demonstrates a strong federal family commitment to expeditiously develop a sustainable, world-class offshore wind industry in a way that reduces conflict with other ocean uses and protects resources. The plan focuses on overcoming three key challenges: the relatively high cost of offshore wind energy; technical challenges surrounding installation, operations, and grid interconnection; and the lack of site data and experience with project permitting processes.”

The plan explains that the work is “taking place within the broader context of the new National Ocean Policy for the United States, which emphasizes the importance of coastal and marine spatial planning and early and frequent collaboration among stakeholders.”

The plan further explains that “DOE will facilitate a nationally coordinated effort to collect and disseminate data for use in planning individual projects and carrying out critical marine spatial planning activities in support of responsible offshore wind development.”

The complete strategy document is attached below along with an Overview on wind energy.